NU men lose fourth straight but still in postseason chase

T'wolves need to beat either Wayne or SVSU to clinch tourney berth

Fred Kelly, fred.kelly@mdn.net

Updated
11:12 pm EST, Thursday, February 21, 2019

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Northwood's men's basketball team is down but still not quite out.

The Timberwolves dropped another close contest on Thursday, this time falling to visiting Ashland, the second-place team in the GLIAC, by the score of 83-77 for their fourth straight loss. Despite that skid, NU (11-15 overall, 8-10 in the GLIAC) sits in eighth place in the overall conference standings and needs to win only one of its final two regular-season games to clinch a GLIAC Tournament bid.

Northwood has a two-game lead on ninth-place Michigan Tech and Wayne State (both 6-10 in the conference), and the Timberwolves will host the Warriors on Saturday at 6 p.m. before wrapping up the regular season next Thursday at home vs. Saginaw Valley State.

"We've got two teams coming in who are fighting for pride," noted NU coach Jeff Rekeweg. "They're out of the tournament, and both of them are winnable (games), but both of them can also beat us. We need to make sure we handle this (slump) and keep our heads up and come back in here tomorrow and get prepared for Wayne State."

Thursday's matchup was an entertaining back-and-forth battle, with the Eagles throwing a number of punches and the Timberwolves answering repeatedly with counterpunches. As a result, AU was never able to quite pull away, while NU was never able to get a lead.

AU got off to a good start, hit some shots early, and held the Timberwolves to only four points through the first 9:23 of the contest, building a 14-4 lead in the process. But Northwood suddenly woke up and went on a 9-2 run, capped by consecutive 3-pointers by Danny Kolp and Alec Marty, to cut it to 16-13.

The Eagles eventually pushed their lead back to double digits, 31-21, before settling for a 31-24 edge heading into halftime.

NU got off to a nice start in the second half, scoring the first six points on a driving layup by Marty, a cutting layup by David Jelinek, and a post bucket by Jelinek to pull to within 31-30. The Timberwolves tied it a couple of times moments later, but Ashland responded with a 12-1 spurt to open up a 46-35 advantage.

The Eagles would lead by as much as 12 before Northwood ran off 11 consecutive points in quick succession to cut it to 55-54 with 8:44 to play. But AU came right back with a 10-3 run, bookended by a pair of 3's by Rodrick Caldwell, to push its lead to 65-57.

The Timberwolves continued to hang around, later running off seven straight points, including a backdoor layup by Marty and a 3-pointer by Marty, to trim the deficit to 74-72 with 1:47 to play. Again, Ashland had the answer, as Caldwell drilled another triple to make it 77-72 with 1:21 remaining, and NU would get no closer than three down the stretch.

Rekeweg gave all the credit in the world to the Eagles.

"There are not many games where you trail by seven at halftime, then shoot 70 percent in the second half and lose," said Rekeweg, whose Timberwolves were a sizzling 19 of 27 from the floor after the break. "Tonight wasn't so much about us not finishing. They (AU) just made some great plays.

" ... Several of their 3's were at the end of the shot clock, and we actually wanted them to shoot (the shots that they took)," he added. "You've got to take your hat off sometimes and say (they earned it). It took a heroic effort for them to beat us."

AU (22-4 overall, 14-4 GLIAC) shot 51 percent (29 of 57) from the floor overall and 59 percent (10 of 17) from 3-point range, while NU finished at 53 percent (29 of 55) overall and 43 percent (6 of 14) from long range.

Drew Noble was 4 of 4 from beyond the arc and led the Eagles with 28 points, while Caldwell was 3 of 4 from long range and finished with 21 points and four assists. Aaron Thompson had 13 points, while Phil Frentsos added nine points.

For Northwood, Marty led the way with 16 points, while Jelinek had 15 points, Jack Ammerman was 3 of 5 from beyond the arc and scored 13 points, and Trey McBride added 11 points, Ja'Kavien Lewis chipped in 10 points and eight assists, while Kolp added nine points.